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Gardening and farming in rural north Idaho has many joys and some challenges-- Zone 4 climate, plant predators/ visitors up to and including moose; sudden weather extremes (we get maritime weather off the Pacific and continental weather down from Alberta & BC). Specializing in herbs and fragrant plants led first to a keen interest in cooking with herbs, and then to soapmaking. Any one day's work might see fence fixing, pruning, soapmaking, gathering botanicals, oohing at the elk herd parading past.

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April 3, 2011

In honor if it finally being spring (I have crocus blooming even if it snowed an inch overnight!), I made a new soap today, using cucumber and a blend of essential oils to give the fresh impression of cucumber, as while the lovely cucumber kept its fragrance through the lye and into the molds, I doubt it would last much beyond cure. A bit of green French clay and teal oxide for swirls and a marbled top, and the bars look pretty springy; I hope to upload photos tomorrow when they are cut. This was my first soap using galbanum and petitgrain together, and I quite like them this way; to deepen the green note there is some vetiver, and to soften, a dab of orange flower wax.

Next up: banana; when a bunch of bananas got away from me last winter, I froze them for banana bread, and the excess seem perfect for a super gentle, sweet soap. I've been tinkering on an essential oil blend to hint at bananas (fresh, not too ripe); we'll see how I did when it's unmolded.